Independence

  60. James Duane, Notes of Debates, September 6, 1774, LDC 1:32; Deane to Elizabeth Deane, September 6, 1774, ibid., 1:29.

  61. DGW, September 5–24, 1774, 3:275–79; Robert Treat Paine, Diary, September 9, 1774, LDC 1:57, 66; JA Diary, September 7, 8, October 14, 24, 1774, DAJA 2:127, 152, 156.

  62. JCC 1:31–40; JA, Diary, September 17, 1774, DAJA 2:134; JA to AA, September 18, 1774, AFC 1:157.

  63. Jensen, Founding of a Nation, 492–96, 503; Samuel Ward, Diary, September 21, 1774, LDC 1:90; ibid., 1:94n; JCC 1:42; JA, [Notes on Measures to be Taken Up by Congress, September–October, 1774], DAJA 2:145; ibid., 2:145–46n.

  64. JA, Diary, September 26–27, 1774, DAJA 2:137–40; Jensen, Founding of a Nation, 496–97.

  65. GW, Diary, September 28, 1774, DGW 3:282.

  66. JA, Diary, September 28, 1774, DAJA 2:141–44. Soon after Congress, Galloway elaborated on his September 28 speech in a long pamphlet that was published in New York the following February. See Joseph Galloway, A Candid Examination of the Mutual Claims of Great Britain and the Colonies (1775), in Merrill Jensen, ed., Tracts of the American Revolution, 1763–1776 (Indianapolis, Ind., 1967), 350–99. The bare-bones plan can also be found in Douglas, English Historical Documents, 9:811–12.

  67. JA is quoted in John Ferling, The Loyalist Mind: Joseph Galloway and the American Revolution (University Park, Pa., 1977), 27. See also JA, Diary, September 28, 1774, DAJA 2:142–43; Samuel Ward, Diary, October 22, 1774, LDC 1:234.

  68. JA to Joseph Palmer, September 26, 1774, PJA 2:173; JA to William Tudor, October 7, 1774, ibid., 2:188.

  69. Samuel Ward, Diary, October 19, 1774, LDC 1:221; Jensen, Founding of a Nation, 500–507; JCC 1:74–81; Douglas, English Historical Documents, 9:813–16.

  70. The Declaration of Colonial Rights and Grievances, in Douglas, English Historical Documents, 9:805–8. The quotation can be found on page 807. The document can also be found in JCC 1:63–73. In the most vague terms, the Declaration reminded London that the Ohio Country had been “conquered from France” by Anglo-American soldiery.

  71. Thomas M. Doerflinger, A Vigorous Spirit of Enterprise: Merchants and Economic Development in Revolutionary Philadelphia (New York, 1986), 70–196; Marston, King and Congress, 93–96.

  72. Richard Henry Lee’s Proposed Resolution, October 3, 1774, LDC 1:140; Silas Deane, Diary, October 3, 1774, ibid., 1:138–39.

  73. JA to TJ, November 12, 1813, in Lester J. Cappon, ed., The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1959), 2:392.

  74. Samuel Adams’s Draft Letter to Thomas Gage, October 7–8, 1774, LDC 1:158–60; Samuel Ward, Diary, October 10, 1774, ibid., 1:171; JCC 1:60–61; Marston, King and Congress, 86–90.

  75. Samuel Ward, Diary, October 22, 1774, LDC 1:234; ibid., 1:112–17n.

  76. JCC 1:115–22; JA, Diary, October 24, 1774, DAJA 2:156.

  77. JA to AA, October 7, 1774, AFC 1:164–66; George Read to Gertrude Read, October 24, 1774, LDC 1:244.

  78. Robert Treat Paine, Diary, October 26, 1774, LDC 1:248; Galloway to Thomas Nickleson, November 1, 1774, ibid., 1:255; Galloway to Samuel Verplanck, December 30, 1774, ibid., 1:284; SA to Thomas Young, October [?], 1774, ibid., 1:205.

  CHAPTER 4: “IT IS A BILL OF WAR. IT DRAWS THE SWORD”: LORD DARTMOUTH, GEORGE WASHINGTON, HOSTILITIES

  1. DGW, October 27–30, 1774, 3:287–88; GW, Cash Accounts, September and October 1774, PGWC: 10:159–60, 166–68.

  2. GW to John Connally, February 25, 1775, PGWC 10:273; Fairfax Independent Company to GW, October 19, 1774, April 25, 1775, ibid., 10:173, 173–74n, 344; GW to John Augustine Washington, March 25, 1775, ibid., 10:308; GW to Townshend Dade Jr., November 19, 1774, ibid., 10:187; GW to John Tayloe, October 31, 1774, ibid., 10:175; GW to James Cleveland, January 10, [March ?], 1775, ibid., 10:230, 314; GW to William Bronaugh, January 18, 1775, ibid., 10:238; GW to William Stevens, March 6, 1775, ibid., 10:288; GW to Andrew Lewis, March 27, 1775, ibid., 10:310; [GW], Agreement with William Skilling, February 25, 1775, ibid., 10:272–73; William Crawford to GW, March 6, 1775, ibid., 10:292–93; DGW 3:291, 302, 303, 309, 321.

  3. Milton E. Flower, John Dickinson: Conservative Revolutionary (Charlottesville, Va., 1983), 118, 122; Kevin J. Hayes, The Mind of a Patriot: Patrick Henry and the World of Ideas (Charlottesville, Va., 2008), 85; Robert D. Meade, Patrick Henry (Philadelphia, 1957–69), 2:18–19; John K. Alexander, Samuel Adams: America’s Revolutionary Politician (Lanham, Md., 2002), 145; Dickinson to Josiah Quincy Jr., October 28, 1774, LDC 1:251; William Hooper to Mary Hooper, November 7, 1774, ibid., 1:256; James Duane to Samuel Chase, December 29, 1774, ibid., 1:277; JA to James Warren, January 3, 1775, PJA 2:209.

  4. John Ferling, Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence (New York, 2007), 27; John R. Galvin, The Minute Men: The First Fight: Myths and Realities of the American Revolution (Washington, D.C., 1989), 56–57; Joyce Lee Malcolm, Peter’s War: A New England Slave Boy and the American Revolution (New Haven, Conn., 2009), 43. The two quotations can be found in Ray Raphael, The First American Revolution: Before Lexington and Concord (New York, 2002), 162, 182.

  5. Bernard Donoughue, British Politics and the American Revolution: The Path to War, 1773–1775 (London, 1964), 132–33; John Derry, English Politics and the American Revolution (New York, 1976), 72–73.

  6. Alan Valentine, Lord North (Norman, Okla., 1967), 1:260; BF to Cushing, April 3, 1770, PBF 20:129; BF to William Franklin, August 17, 1772, ibid., 19:244; Dartmouth to Hutchinson, December 9, 1772, DAR 5:239.

  7. Quoted in B. D. Bargar, Lord Dartmouth and the American Revolution (Columbia, S.C., 1965), 89. The survey of Dartmouth’s early life and political career draws on this study, especially pages 1–67.

  8. Peter D. G. Thomas, The Townshend Duty Crisis: The Second Phase of the American Revolution, 1767–1773 (Oxford, 1987), 255–56; BF to William Franklin, July 14, 1773, PBF 20:308.

  9. JA to Tudor, June 29, 1774, PJA 2:104.

  10. Valentine, Lord North, 1:312–13; Donoughue, British Politics and the American Revolution, 38; Bargar, Lord Dartmouth and the American Revolution, 109.

  11. Peter D. G. Thomas, Tea Party to Independence: The Third Phase of the American Revolution, 1773–1776 (Oxford, 1991), 60, 61, 67; Bargar, Lord Dartmouth and the American Revolution, 107–8; Valentine, Lord North, 1:314; Donoughue, British Politics and the American Revolution, 37–38, 52–63, 69–70.

  12. Bargar, Lord Dartmouth and the American Revolution, 115–16; Thomas, Tea Party to Independence, 145–46.

  13. Thomas, Tea Party to Independence, 155, 157.

  14. Quoted in Bernard Bailyn, The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson (Cambridge, Mass., 1974), 304.

  15. Jeremy Black, George III: America’s Last King (New Haven, Conn., 2006), 81–82, 108–43, 209–14. The quotation is on page 209.

  16. The two preceding paragraphs draw on BF, Arthur Lee, and William Bollan to the Speaker of the Pennsylvania …, December 24, 1775, PBF 21:399; King to North, September 11, November 18, December 15, 1774, in Sir John Fortescue, ed., The Correspondence of George III, 1760–1783 (London, 1927), 3:131, 153, 156; Bargar, Lord Dartmouth and the American Revolution, 146–48; Thomas, Tea Party to Independence, 166–70; Peter Whiteley, Lord North: The Prime Minister Who Lost America (London, 1996), 146–47; Donoughue, British Politics and the American Revolution, 217; Black, George III, 215–16.

  17. Gage to Dartmouth, August 27, September 2, 12, October 3, 17, 30, 1774, in Clarence Carter, ed., The Correspondence of General Thomas Gage with the Secretaries of State, and the War Office and the Treasury, 1763–1775 (reprint, New York, 1969), 1:366, 367, 370, 371, 374, 378, 380, 383. The figure for the strength of Gage’s army is for January 1, 1775. See David Hackett Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride (New York, 1994), 309.

  18. Penn to Dartmouth, July 5, 1774, DAR 8:142; Dunmore to Dartmouth, June 6, 1774, ibid., 8:128; Martin to Dartmouth, September 1, 1774, ibid., 8:172; Bull to Dar
tmouth, July 31, 1774, ibid., 8:154; Wright to Dartmouth, August 24, 1774, ibid., 8:162.

  19. For example, see “The Humble Petition of the Merchants, Traders, and others, of the City of London, concerned in the Commerce of North America” (1775), in Harry T. Dickinson, ed., British Pamphlets on the American Revolution (London, 2007), 247–49. See also H. T. Dickinson, “ ‘The Friends of America’: British Sympathy with the American Revolution,” in Michael T. Davis, ed., Radicalism and Revolution in Britain, 1775–1848 (New York, 2000), 11; James E. Bradley, “The British Public Opinion and the American Revolution: Ideology, Interest and Opinion,” in H. T. Dickinson, ed., Britain and the American Revolution (London, 1998), 135; Stephen Conway, The British Isles and the War of Independence (New York, 2000), 130–35; and Kathleen Wilson, The Sense of the People: Politics, Culture and Imperialism in England, 1715–1785 (Cambridge, 1995), 238–40.

  20. See [Joseph Cawthorne], A Plan to Reconcile Great Britain & Her Colonies, and Preserve the Dependency of America (London, 1774); Dickinson, British Pamphlets on the American Revolution, 3:1–58; [Anon.], A Plan for Conciliating the Jarring Political Interests of Great Britain and Her North American Colonies (London, 1775), ibid., 183–202. The quotation is on page 56 of A Plan for Conciliating.

  21. [Anon.], The Supremacy of the British Legislature Over the Colonies (London, 1775), ibid., 3:207–44.

  22. Dora Mae Clark, British Opinion and the American Revolution (reprint, New York, 1966), 76–92; Solomon Lutnick, The American Revolution and the British Press, 1775–1783 (Columbia, Mo., 1967), 42–45, 42n; H. W. Brands, The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin (New York, 2000), 481.

  23. David Barclay and John Fothergill to BF, December 3, 1774, PBF 21:364–65; BF, Hints for Conversation upon the Terms …, [December 4–6], 1774, ibid., 21:366–68; editor’s notes, ibid., 21:360–66; Carl Van Doren, Benjamin Franklin (New York, 1938), 479.

  24. BF, Proposals to Lord Howe, [December 31], 1774, ibid., 21:409–11; editor’s note, ibid., 21:408–9. Franklin did not learn of Dartmouth’s response to his initial hints until February. The American secretary was agreeable to the repeal of the Tea Act, modifying the restraints on American trade, and taxing the colonists only in wartime. However, the repeal of the Coercive Acts “was inadmissible.” See “Answers to Franklin’s ‘Hints,’ ” [before February 4, 1775], ibid., 21:466–68; editor’s note, ibid., 21:465–66. On the ploy to use Franklin in this crisis, see also Van Doren, Benjamin Franklin, 495–518, and Philip James McFarland, The Brave Bostonians: Hutchinson, Quincy, Franklin and the Coming of the American Revolution (Boulder, Colo., 1998), 143–52, 193–203.

  25. BF to Galloway, April 20, 1771, April 6, 1773, February 25, 1774, PBF 18:78, 20:149, 21:509.

  26. Minute of a Cabinet Meeting, January 21, 1775, in The Manuscripts of the Earl of Dartmouth, Prepared by the Historical Manuscript Commission of Great Britain (reprint, Boston, 1972), 1:372.

  27. Thomas, Tea Party to Independence, 176–81; Ian R. Christie and Benjamin W. Labaree, Empire or Independence, 1760–1776 (New York, 1976), 231; David Hackett Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride (New York, 1994), 51.

  28. Dartmouth to Gage, January 27, 1775, in Carter, Correspondence of General Thomas Gage, 2:179–81.

  29. PBF 21:459–61n; BF, “Notes for Discourse with Ld. C. on his Plan,” January 31, 1775, ibid., 21:461–62; BF Memorandum on Chatham’s Plan of Conciliation, [on or after February 1, 1775], ibid., 21:463–64; BF to JG, February 5[–7], 1775, ibid., 21:469; Peter Douglas Brown, William Pitt, Earl of Chatham: The Great Commoner (London, 1978), 380; Stanley Ayling, The Elder Pitt: Earl of Chatham (New York, 1976), 411–14.

  30. One version of Chatham’s speech is in PH 18:149–60. A second, based on notes taken by Hugh Boyd that were published in 1779, can also be found in ibid., 18:149–56n. My account draws on both versions. The quotations can be found on pages 150n, 154n, 155n, and 158.

  31. PH 18:222–24. See also Thomas, Tea Party to Independence, 51, 191–97.

  32. The quotations can be found in Dickinson, “ ‘The Friends of America,’ ” in Davis, Radicalism and Revolution in Britain, 2.

  33. North to the King, February 19, 1775, Fortescue, Correspondence of George III, 3:177.

  34. PH 18:319–20; Thomas, Tea Party to Independence, 201. The royal authorities were made aware of North’s plan by the American secretary. See Dartmouth, Circular Letter to the Governors, March 3, 1775, DAR 9:60–62.

  35. PH 18:321.

  36. Quoted in H. T. Dickinson, “British Imperial Sovereignty: The Ideological Case against the American Colonists,” in H. T. Dickinson, ed., Britain and the American Revolution, 85. The subminister was William Knox.

  37. PH 18:438–44; Valentine, Lord North, 1:347.

  38. PH 18:447; Valentine, Lord North, 1:347.

  39. PH 18:478–538. The lengthy quotation can be found in ibid., 18:535–36. Burke’s comment about speaking out for honor and conscience can be found in Frank O’Gorman, “The Parliamentary Opposition to the Government’s American Policy, 1760–1782,” in Dickinson, Britain and the American Revolution, 103. For useful analyses of Burke’s speech and the nature of the opposition in Parliament, see also John Derry, English Politics and the American Revolution (New York, 1976), 129–48.

  40. PH 18:570.

  41. On Hartley’s reputation, see PBF 21:511.

  42. Merrill Jensen, The Founding of a Nation: A History of the American Revolution, 1763–1776 (New York, 1968), 515–32; Leopold S. Launitz-Schurer, Loyal Whigs and Revolutionaries: The Making of the Revolution in New York, 1765–1776 (New York, 1980), 145–46.

  43. Report of the Braintree Committee of the Continental Association, March 15, 1775, PJA 2:396–400.

  44. William Nelson, The American Tory (Oxford, 1961), 93–94; Ray Raphael, The First American Revolution: Before Lexington and Concord (New York, 2002), 59–89; Richard M. Ketchum, Divided Loyalties: How the American Revolution Came to New York (New York, 2002), 292.

  45. Ketchum, Divided Loyalties, 315. On the raising of the Tory military unit, see Dartmouth to Gage, January 27, 1775, in Carter, Correspondence of General Thomas Gage, 2:180.

  46. On the Tory pamphlets, see [Joseph Galloway], A Candid Examination of the Mutual Claims of Great Britain and the Colonies (New York, 1775); [Jonathan Boucher], A Letter from a Virginian, to the Members of Congress (New York, 1774); [Samuel Seabury], The Congress Canvassed … (New York, 1774); [Samuel Seabury], A View of the Controversy Between Great Britain and her Colonies (New York, 1775); [Thomas Bradbury Chandler], A Friendly Address to all Reasonable Americans (New York, 1774); [Thomas Bradbury Chandler], What Think Ye of the Congress Now? (New York, 1775); [Daniel Leonard], The Origins of the American Contest with Great Britain (Boston, 1774); Jonathan Sewall, A Cure for the Spleen; or, Amusements for a Winter’s Evening (Boston, 1775). For extended summaries of the Tory arguments, see John Ferling, The Loyalist Mind: Joseph Galloway and the American Revolution (University Park, Pa., 1977), 112–27; Nelson, American Tory, 64–84; Jensen, Founding of a Nation, 510–13. Galloway’s Candid Examination is reprinted in Merrill Jensen, ed., Tracts of the American Revolution, 1763–1776 (Indianapolis, Ind., 1967). The Galloway quotations in this paragraph can be found on pages 375–76 of that source. The “scum will rise” quote can be found in Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1969), 476.

  47. Galloway, Candid Examination, in Jensen, Tracts of the American Revolution, 387, 388, 390, 391.

  48. John Adams, “The Letters of Novanglus,” PJA 2:216–387. The quotations are on pages 339 and 374.

  49. Alexander Hamilton, A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress (1774), in Harold C. Syrett and Jacob E. Cooke, eds., Papers of Alexander Hamilton, (New York, 1961–79), 1:45–78; Alexander Hamilton, The Farmer Refuted (1775), ibid., 1:81–165. The quotations can be found on pages 157–58.

  50. [Charles Lee], Strictures on A “Friendly Address to All Reasonable Americans” (177
5), [Early American Imprint Series, no. 13372]; John Alden, General Charles Lee: Traitor or Patriot? (Baton Rouge, La., 1951), 62–65.

  51. Malcolm, Peter’s War, 68.

  52. Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride, 287–88; Ferling, Almost a Miracle, 32.

  53. The best account of the events on this epic day can be found in Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride, 184–260, upon which my description is based. Pitcairn’s order to the militiamen to lay down their arms and Revere’s description of the sound of the British musketry can be found in ibid., pages 191 and 195.

  54. GW, Diary, February 8, March 31, 1775, DGW 3:308, 312, 319.

  55. Fairfax County Resolves, July 18, 1774, PGWC 10:119–27.

  56. GW to George William Fairfax, June 10[–15], 1774, PGWC 10:96–97.

  57. GW to Fairfax, May 31, 1775, PGWC 10:368.

  58. GW to Robert McKenzie, October 9, 1774, PGWC 10:172.

  CHAPTER 5: “A RESCRIPT WRITTEN IN BLOOD”: JOHN DICKINSON AND THE APPEAL OF RECONCILIATION

  1. Louis Birnbaum, Red Dawn at Lexington (Boston, 1986), 196; Richard Frothingham, History of the Siege of Boston (Boston, 1849), 101; Allen French, The Siege of Boston (New York, 1911), 217.

  2. Richard M. Ketchum, Decisive Day: The Battle for Bunker Hill (New York, 1974), 64, 75; Birnbaum, Red Dawn at Lexington, 71–74. On General Ward, see Charles Martyn, The Life of Artemas Ward (New York, 1921).

  3. Benjamin Newcomb, Franklin and Galloway: A Political Partnership (New Haven, Conn., 1972), 276–78; Joseph Hewes to Samuel Johnston, May 11, 1775, LDC 1:342.

  4. Robert Livingston to John Stevens, April 23, 1775, LDC 1:331.

  5. Dickinson to Arthur Lee, April 29, 1775, LDC 1:331.

  6. Lee to William Lee, May 10, 1775, LDC 1:337.

  7. JA, Autobiography, DAJA 3:314.

  8. SA to Richard Henry Lee, March 21, 1775, ibid., 1:321.

  9. David Hackett Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride (New York, 1994), 267–79. The quotations can be found on pages 269, 270, and 279.

  10. Frank L. Mott, “The Newspaper Coverage of Lexington and Concord,” New England Quarterly 17 (1944): 489–505. The quotations can be found on pages, 496, 499, and 500.